What is Shadow DOM

What is Shadow DOM?

Shadow DOM is a core part of the Web Components standard, allowing developers to encapsulate HTML, CSS, and JavaScript within a custom element. This encapsulation ensures that styles and behavior inside the component are isolated from the rest of the document, preventing conflicts between internal and external CSS or scripts.


How It Works

  1. Shadow Root: A shadow DOM is created inside a host element by attaching a shadow root, which acts as a separate document tree.
  2. Encapsulation: Elements within the shadow DOM don’t interfere with or inherit styles from the main DOM (unless explicitly designed to do so).
  3. Slots: The shadow DOM allows for content projection through <slot> elements, letting external content be placed inside the component.

Example of Shadow DOM in Action

<custom-element></custom-element>

<script>
  class CustomElement extends HTMLElement {
    constructor() {
      super();
      const shadow = this.attachShadow({ mode: 'open' });

      shadow.innerHTML = `
        <style>
          p { color: red; }
        </style>
        <p>This is inside the shadow DOM</p>
      `;
    }
  }

  customElements.define('custom-element', CustomElement);
</script>

In this example, the <p> element inside the shadow DOM will remain unaffected by CSS from the main document. Even if the main page defines a different style for <p> elements, it won’t apply inside the shadow tree.


Modes of Shadow DOM

  • Open Mode: The shadow root is accessible through JavaScript with element.shadowRoot.
  • Closed Mode: The shadow root is hidden from external scripts.

Use Cases for Shadow DOM

  1. Web Components: Encapsulate reusable UI elements like modals, buttons, or dropdowns.
  2. Style Isolation: Prevent style leakage between a component and the main page.
  3. Browser UI Elements: Native elements like <video> and <input> use shadow DOM internally to structure their content and styles.

Limitations of Shadow DOM

  • Selectors like querySelector can’t access it directly: You need to explicitly traverse the shadow root or use utilities like Puppeteer’s pierce selector.
  • SEO Challenges: Content inside shadow DOM might not always be indexed properly by search engines.

Shadow DOM helps in building modular and maintainable code, making it an essential tool for modern web development【19†source】【20†source】.

댓글

이 블로그의 인기 게시물

Using the MinIO API via curl

How to split a list into chunks of 100 items in JavaScript, 자바스크립트 리스트 쪼개기

HTML Inline divisions at one row by Tailwind

Boilerplate for typescript server programing

가속도 & 속도

Gradle multi-module project

How to checkout branch of remote git, 깃 리모트 브랜치 체크아웃

CDPEvents in puppeteer

Sparse encoder

Reactjs datetime range picker